For baseball fans with cable or streaming access, the playoffs are the hottest sporting event in October. Plenty have been tuning in and, unfortunately, are subjected to the hyper-sexualized advertising between innings. Los Angeles Dodgers player Adam Call posted on social media, slamming the racy commercials, claiming they are “soft-core porn” and inappropriate for young baseball fans to witness.
Call correctly wrote, “Can we please get the soft porn ads off playoff broadcasts, TBS, Fox, NBC, @MLB? My son wants to watch baseball with Dada, but how do I justify that when a half-naked women [sic] could come on screen anytime?? This is America’s Pastime. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about this.”
Call was referring to two objectionable ads, one featuring Sydney Sweeney promoting a gambling site with no clothes on, and only sports equipment to cover her personal areas. Very little is left to the imagination when a tennis racket covers her back side. The ad images are meant to be seductive, inappropriate for younger viewers, and tempting for older viewers. This ad has crossed the line. And if that were not enough for the MLB, viewers had to suffer through another provocative ad selling erectile dysfunction pills.
This time it isn’t a young woman but a middle-aged mother of four called Meghan Fox. In this ad, she wears a skin-tight red bodysuit reminiscent of a speed skater’s uniform, but unlike a woman skating around the track, Fox contorts her body into stimulating positions. At 54, Fox should know better than to use her body to make money. She disagrees and, according to People magazine, said she feels she was born for the role. With females making up 51% of the population, arguably all of them could make the same claim.
Is it any wonder why young people are acting out as hedonists at Cornell and other college campuses, when in their impressionable years they are exposed to these types of ads? They should never appear during prime time, especially during baseball games, when children who love baseball might see them. Major League Baseball and the networks covering the games have a responsibility to make sure their product is appropriate for all ages. This year definitely was not, and thanks to Call for calling them out.
Parents concerned about what their children watch had no idea a baseball game could offend their sensibilities. By tuning in to what they think is wholesome entertainment for the children, they are met with sexually explicit advertising; parents have again been betrayed by corporate money. Recall how the Disney Corporation perverted its brand from acceptable entertainment for children to the perversion of sexually motivated themes.
Aside from the children, who wants to be exposed to women selling their image during a baseball game? It almost seems to be another extension of the Super Bowl raunchy halftime shows promoted by the NFL. When simple decorum and decency start to invade even sports, you know the culture is very sick indeed.
Christians now, more than ever, must be in solidarity to refute the filth that is invading public spaces. On social media, they must tweet and retweet their objection to this kind of advertising during the baseball playoffs and World Series, or, for that matter, any televised sporting event.
These suggestive ads have no place during the national pastime and, left unchecked, baseball should be rated R with a disclaimer before each game with the warning of sexually explicit material unsuitable for minors. Who would have thought?